Weekend Getaway With My Husband And Many Of You

Ahhhh. Who does not love summer getaways? Even if you cannot go far away or take the whole week off, a weekend getaway can refresh your soul. And that, it did.

Child #1 was busy working and participating in a fishing tournament (yes, they exist – that’s for another post) and Child #2, is away for the week with her boyfriend and his family (Ay…). He is actually a very nice young man and his family will take great care of her (my father is turning in his grave because I allowed her to go, something I would never have been allowed to do at the tender age of 17 – Sorry, Papi, she will be ok!)

I figured I would un-plug from the world for the most part, while away and focus solely on my wonderful husband who needed desperately to get out-of-town (being a town official, let’s just say he gets beaten up down often, since it is impossible to please everyone and it can be a thankless job.)

We “pricelined” our Saturday night stay, bidding low and having our bid accepted and headed out Saturday morning on our little getaway. I love how relaxed we felt from the beginning. No rush, no stress – just driving along with no real plan.

If you have not visited the coastal towns of Massachusetts before, it is something you must do. We often vacation on Cape Cod (I was thinking of my buddy Joe @ http://joedegiorgio.com/ who got to go for two weeks this year) and love its beaches and sand dunes.

We headed to the North Shore which is just as lovely. My husband’s favorite beach is, Plum Island (named for the wild Beach Plum Shrubs that grow on the dunes) off of Newburyport. He is an avid birder and loves the fact that some of the beach is sectioned off to protect the many nesting and endangered, Piping Plovers.

US Fish & Wildlife

It is such a beautiful and pristine beach. We took a little walk and ran into the incredible and only resort on the beach called, Blue The Inn On The Beach.

Courtesy of the Chamber of Commerce

Even though we had our non refundable Priceline reservation already, we checked out the rates for next time. At $400/night we decided to turn back around and go sit in our great Rio Beach chairs which by the way, have built-in cup holders – so there!

While relaxing on the beach, my mind kept veering off into blogosphere. Everything around me made me think of a post I had read, a particular blogger or a blog-worthy picture I could be taking. Is this what happens when you have been blogging for a while? Your life is forever linked to your blog?

I kept telling myself to STOP. Focus on your hubby and this beautiful day, brickhouse! Forget about the blog! But, I looked at the cutest couple with their adorable little girls playing in the sand and I immediately thought of Andy ( aka father of the year) from http://ourlifein3d.com/ and his great vacation pics with his girls.

Then, as I looked in the water and saw a woman on a tube, I remembered the awesome tube the lovely Shannon at

got for her weekend getaway. Shannon’s was a pumped up tube with mini fridge and all!

I kept coming back to my hubby and smiling at him. At least he thought I was thinking about him! We were soon hungry (when am I not soon hungry) and left the beach for an early dinner at the local Grille.

I looked at the menu and the only thing on my mind was, what would mama (my awesome friend the nutritionist) want me to order that is gluten-free? Ay! This place is famous for its fried clams but I knew this was not an option. I was ok. I ordered a lobster salad with avocado and cucumber along with mussels. Pretty good, huh? Except that the lobster salad was minuscule and did not even make a dent at my starvation and the mussels although in abundance…did not fill me up either. PLUS, I could not dip the wonderful fresh smelling bread into the mussel sauce! AY! I filled up on the liquid variety on the menu and stayed strong.

Our overnight accommodations were…so so. We had tried to get reservations at other more suitable places but everything was booked since our trip was last-minute. The most interesting part about our hotel was that it was a stone’s throw from the infamous,http://www.thegoldenbanana.com/a gentlemen’s club sort of place on Route 1. Nothing good ever comes out of staying in a sprawl infested Route 1. You know the kind. But, as tempting and tantalizing as it was…we stayed away.

The next morning we headed to beautiful Rockport (and I thought about my friend’s husband who grew up there), a historic little village off of Cape Ann. Such an eclectic and gorgeous place. An artist’s paradise.

and home to

Motif No 1 A fishing shack that is “the most often painted building in America”.

As we walked around, we saw many signs.

I immediately thought of the inspiring Andra, who wrote a nice post about signs,

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45 thoughts on “Weekend Getaway With My Husband And Many Of You”

Reminded me of a vacation on the Cape when I was twelve. My aunt and uncle convinced my father to take us to Hyannis as a way to ease us over my mother’s death. I want to go back to pull up the memories and write about them.

They’re still there. I need to work it out the only way I can, on paper. She’s in a place inside my head that I’ve locked up. The thing is some kind of bad things happened and now all of the people responsible are dead except for a few of their kids.

HA! That’s so funny. I often have this could be “blog-worthy” picture moments whenever I’m out and about on my staycations or Guat adventures. I haven’t been vacationing anywhere, the best I get is when I walk to the CVS by myself 🙂 But I imagine if I’m in a faraway place I’d still have blog-worthy picture moments 🙂

How did you guess that I ditched you for ice cream?? I can’t think of any other time that I would have needed to ditch you! 🙂 Blogger friends are like family so you are right, we take them with us everywhere we go!

I am so glad you had some proper R&R with your sweet husband! It makes my heart happy that you thought of me, too. 🙂 And yes, I spend a lot of time thinking, “That would make a good blog post” I think we will always think this way now and that’s totally okay. I look forward to your next blog post. Mwah!! Thanks again!

We don’t get to go out near the ocean as much as we would like. We are inland but it’s only 2 hours away which is not too bad. I would love it if my husband got a job in any of the towns by the shore. You are lucky to have the ocean so close to you and the boat. That’s what I call living!

I am so with you on this! Yes, I see a scene on vacay and think how my readers would enjoy hearing about this or maybe one or two readers in particular. I think you have been officially converted to wonderful blogress by now then. its like an addiction, sometimes isn’t it? Thanks for sharing your trip and the wonderful pics. Now I want to make it up to your beach too! Give me a Rio chair with a cup holder and I am in heaven!

You are invited to this neck of the woods! You graciously invited me to your great destination. I’m not sure if they have delicious donuts here but if you like fried clams and lobstah, you will be all set! 🙂

Thanks Andra! My husband slowed down while driving so I could get some of those shots. I love it how they help us with our blogs. My hubby had just “survived” a tough round of controversial public meetings and decisions and I needed to get him out of town!

I’m in tropical South Florida — after three straight years of having to dig my car out of feet (MULTIPLE) of snow and fearing frostbite on my walk to the T, I broke down and fled as far away as I could.